Richard O. Allen and Charlotte Golden are my 2nd great-grandparents. It took me years to know their story, though mysteries about Charlotte remain. They spent much of their adult life in southwestern Indiana. Richard was a farmer, having come there with his parents from Mason County, Kentucky, between 1816 and 1820.
Wheat Field in Daviess County, Indiana. Public Domain.
Charlotte was born in Ohio. She moved to Daviess County, Indiana, with her parents between 1817 and 1821. I didn’t know her parent’s names, and because of this, I did not know much else beyond her marriage to Richard.
I soon learned that she had a previous family, as did Richard. She was first married as a seventeen-year-old to Robert Akester, with whom she had 7 children. Robert died in 1845, and by 1848 she had married Richard. Richard had 3 daughters with his first wife. These children appear on the 1840 census with him and his first wife but disappeared from any further census documents.
Many of Charlotte’s children from her first marriage would go on to live with Richard and Charlotte after their 1848 marriage. Court documents show Richard as their guardian. They had 3 children, one of whom died as a 7-year-old child. My great-grandfather, William, was born to the couple in 1848.
Charlotte’s father came from Virginia to Ohio sometime before his 21st birthday. He married her mother, Elizabeth, in 1811. Not much is known about Elizabeth’s paternal grandparents, except they were in Ohio by 1809.
The story is a classic tale of families looking for new opportunities, seeking opening lands and the fertile soil of the Midwest. Families who worked the land raised their children and died quiet deaths in their homes. What I found instead is a much more profound and disturbing tale.
By 1888, Richard and Charlotte were an elderly couple living on their farm, attended to by servants. All the children were out of the home, most with their own families. In 1887, my great-grandfather, William, was visiting his parents. He died while there at the young age of forty-one. He left a wife and 5 children living in southeastern Kentucky.
A few months ago, a woman contacted me with questions about Richard’s first family. She had also found a rather shocking newspaper article indicating that Richard had committed suicide by tying himself to a tree and slitting his own throat. The article was unbelievable, but with further research, I found several other articles that shed light on the story.
Death Thought to be a Suicide. Newspaper Archives.
One article reported on the coroner’s inquest. The coroner believed Richard was somewhat feeble-minded and distressed because he had been accused of selling his vote in the November election. The coroner thought he had committed suicide. The final article, written months later, revealed the true story of what happened to Richard. Charlotte had murdered her husband. She described the entire circumstances first to her servants and then apparently to the police. Charlotte recounted that because of an argument about their property, she drugged him, dragged him to a tree, tied him up, and finally slit his throat.
Confession Leads to a Story of Murder. Newspaper archives.
I found no further articles. Charlotte died in 1894, years after the murder. She is buried in the cemetery with Richard, her son William, and many other family members. I don’t know what happened to Charlotte after her confession. She was seventy-seven years old when she murdered Richard. I am also curious about William’s death. He was in his early forties when he died. Is there a story there? I looked for any news articles about his death and found nothing. The next step is to locate court records about the murder and perhaps information about William’s death.
